Gay Paree! (Is for Lovers)

The last weekend in February, I went to Paris for the weekend with my friend Dayna and we met up with 2 other girls from our program. It was another crazy travel weekend, but I hearted Paris.

To start out, at the beginning of the week we were supposed to travel, news hit that there was an air traffic controllers’ strike in France. Great! On the day we were supposed to leave (which was already a rough day after dealing with the Spanish post office grr…), a random man claiming he was from the airport called Dayna and I to tell us that we should try to get to the airport early to try to get on an earlier flight. So, I skipped class to get to the airport early. We were greeted at the airport with news that there was no earlier flight and this sign:

And in case you don't know Spanish, that means....

After waiting at the airport for a few hours, we finally were able to take off and head to Paris. In Paris, it turns out that the shuttle system from the airport is undergoing renovation, so everyone was herded onto buses to take us into the city. Since I know about as much French as Darryl (it’s spelled like Darryl but pronounced Dar-rell), I soon realized how difficult this weekend might be. Imagine my relief when we get on the bus and a Jay-Z song was on, a Jay-Z song was on… I think I can get along just fine in any culture that listens to “On to the Next One.” After the bus ride, we accidentally took the wrong metro train to our hotel and ended up at the opposite end of Paris than our hotel. It was already getting late, so we took a cab to our hotel, Hotel ABC Champerret. We were supposed to have a room for 4 people, but the room only had one King sized bed and a small bed. Since the hotel forgot to bring in an extra cot, Dayna and I were able to get our own room for the night.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to a yummy Parisian breakfast and began our busy sightseeing day.

 Notre Dame

The Lourve Art Museum

The Egyptian obelisk - Paris' oldest monument

 With stores like Louis Vuitton on the Champs Elysees, it is clearly not made for those of us on a student budget!

Arc de Triomphe

It started to rain for a while when we were walking, but luckily the sky cleared up and we had beautiful weather the rest of the weekend.

Random: I liked the bathrooms on the streets in Paris. After each person uses the bathroom, the door closes and the bathroom cleans itself!

After walking up Champs d’Elysees, we went to Galleries Lafayette, a large mall in Paris. I quickly realized I wouldn’t be buying anything when I saw the 12,000 euro diamond studded iPod cases.

Next, we began to walk towards Montmartre and Sacre Coeur, the highest point in Paris. Along the way, we spotted a familiar looking red windmill… Of course, it was the infamous Moulin Rouge!

After taking a few pictures here, we continued on and went to the Sacre Coeur. There were great views of the whole city from the the area where this church sits. After walking around for a while, we took a break to just take in the views and collect ourselves. 

Then, we went to this busy street where there were many stores with touristy items and some other stores with sales on shoes, clothes, etc. We had worked up an appetite at this point, so we stopped to have crepes!

Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to plan our trip to the Eiffel Tower so that we could get pictures of it at night and during the day without having to take multiple trips. After the obligatory touristy photo leaning on the Eiffel Tower (which was a major task in itself…), we waited in line to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. There are 2 different levels you can go to – a middle level and the very top. We chose the latter and began to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I soon found out that I was one of the only ones in my group not afraid of heights! So, I took many pictures for myself and with other people’s cameras. Like most things in Paris, it was sooo beautiful! I could have spent hours just looking at the views.

 

 

 I have no idea who would want to drink while standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower, but whatever floats your boat…

Every night, the Eiffel Tower sparkles for 5 minutes at the beginning of every hour. So, after we came down from the top, we found a bench away from the Tower, so we could see it sparkle.

  

Every Friday, students can get into the Lourve Art Museum for free, so that was our next stop. It was getting pretty late and the museum was about to close, so we went directly to the main attraction: the Mona Lisa.

After a loooong day, we opted to stay in for the evening and rest up for the next day. The next morning, our group split up and Dayna and I went back to the Notre Dame. We wanted to go to the top and see the bell tower, but it had been closed on Friday. So, on Saturday, we waited in line to get to the bell tower. I don’t know what I expected, but I did not expect the many, many stairs we had to climb to get to the top. To say it was a workout would be an understatement. But there were also great views from here as well. And I got to see where Quasimodo hangs out!

Later, Dayna and I walked around the area near the Notre Dame and found a small market. Here, we bought meat, salads, vegetables, bread, and all of the other necessities for a picnic. We went back to the Sacre Coeur and had a nice romantic picnic. We had the John Legend and other slow jams playing… Oooh la la!

After this, we went shopping because you can’t go to Paris and NOT go shopping! Then, we finally caught up with Ernest, a friend from high school, who is studying in Paris. After a delicious dinner of salmon pasta and great conversation, we decided to meet up later that night to go out at a bar called Longhop and celebrate Megan’s birthday and our last night in Paris.

Ernest and I - a mini-H-F reunion

Me, Dayna, Brittany, and Megan

Everything was going well until we realized that we had missed the last metro for our connection to head back to the hotel. So, we had to exit the metro in a random part of Paris and try to find a taxi home. This was quite difficult seeing as how none of us knew French and of course, it started to rain! We made it home though!

The next morning, we prepared to leave the hotel and had a little scare when the guy working the front desk swore up and down that the safe deposit box where we put our passports had been broken for months. He was quite embarrassed when it opened and 2 much-needed passports were sitting right there. Based on one of Ernest’s recommendations, Dayna and I went to the Museé d'Orsay, an art museum with lots of art from Van Gogh and other artists from the Impressionist Era.

Then, one of our friends who was also in Paris for the weekend called us to say that many flights back to Bilbao were being cancelled due to a huge storm that was coming. After dealing with the confusing shuttle again, we hurried to the airport and found out that our flight was still scheduled to leave. The wait in the airport at least allowed us to slow down and rest from a busy but extremely fun weekend in a beautiful city.